MP school gets steel plates after children seen eating on newspapers

In the dusty heartland of Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district, a small government primary school in Hullapur has suddenly found itself at the centre of a national storm — and a hurried redemption.

Just a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared a disturbing video showing children eating their mid-day meal off crumpled newspapers, the same school has now been fitted with stainless steel plates, its premises swept clean, and its embarrassed officials scrambling to restore dignity to its youngest pupils.

The earlier video — which went viral on social media — had drawn widespread outrage, exposing a grim reality behind the government’s tall claims of “vikas”. Rahul Gandhi’s post, brimming with anguish, accused the ruling BJP of presiding over a system where the future of India’s children was “not even granted a plate of dignity.”

“These are the same innocent children on whose dreams the future of the country rests,” he wrote, adding that the prime minister and the chief minister should feel “ashamed” of nurturing the nation’s future “in such a pitiable state.”

By Saturday, the picture had changed dramatically. The once-neglected school courtyard had been tidied up, fresh coats of paint adorned its walls, and rows of smiling children sat cross-legged with gleaming steel plates before them — a scene clearly intended to overwrite the shame of the viral footage. BJP leader and former state minister Ramniwas Rawat and sub-divisional magistrate Abhishek Mishra joined the students for lunch, performing a public act of reassurance.

“Today, our entire team visited the spot and inspected the food. It was found that the meal was properly served on plates. I myself, along with public representatives, also ate the meal there,” Mishra told reporters, promising vigilant monitoring so that “no such incident happens again”.

The state administration, jolted into action, swiftly terminated the contract of the self-help group that had been responsible for the meals and transferred the responsibility to the school management committee. The school in-charge, Bhogiram Dhakad, has been suspended, while two other staff members have been served notices for negligence.

The controversy has rekindled a deeper conversation about dignity, deprivation, and the moral weight of governance. In a country that takes pride in calling its children the torchbearers of tomorrow, the sight of them eating off newspapers was more than just an administrative lapse — it was an indictment of collective neglect.

In Hullapur, as the midday sun glinted off the new steel plates, the moment felt less like a celebration and more like a quiet apology — a belated recognition that a child’s meal is not just about sustenance, but about respect.

With PTI inputs